Sunday, September 30, 2012

Welcome to 31 days of Literacy and Learning! Over the next month 3 lovely ladies will be bringing you 30 different activities, each one based around a children's book with an activity to go with it. There will be everything from play dough, to games, to snacks!

Friday, September 28, 2012

I totally can't take credit for today's post. It's all my Mother-In-Law. She taught me how to make it, and I think it's too good not to share!

This stuff is seriously so easy, and so yummy!

Grab your ingredients. You'll need 1 box of dry milk, and a container of your chocolate milk mix of choice. I went with Ovaltine. Those vitamins and minerals make it better...right? Yeah, we'll go with that.

Pour both ingredients into your container of choice. Shake. A lot.

Spoon as much or as little as you want into a mug, mix with boiling water. Enjoy with pumpkin doughnuts.

See? I told you it was easy!

We're pretty well set for Hot Cocoa for a while now. What I love about this mix is that it is totally personalizable (??) and not super sweet. If you like more chocolate, add more! Want it sweeter? Add some powdered sugar to the mix. So simple to tweak.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Well, we're STILL on the hunt for a rental home, and it's got me in full on dream mode!

Today I have some bathrooms for you. I've found that I have a really hard time decorating bathrooms, so these will definitely come in handy. Hopefully sooner, rather than later...

I love this bathroom from LiveLoveDIY. It's calm and soothing, but the stripes give it some interest. I think it would be fun to add some colorful accessories. It would make it super easy to change the feel of the room, without doing everything over! Aqua in the summer, rust and reds in the fall and around Christmas....oh fun!

Speaking of color, I love the colors in this bathroom from Everyday Moments! It's a small bathroom, but it really packs a punch. I love the way the brown tones sort of calm down the aqua and lime. This is one of my favorite color combos! It's an amazing renovation, so go check it out.

I remember thinking "toilet rooms" like this were so strange when we first got to Arizona. They're so common out there. They're not particularly common here in the midwest, but if I ever have one again I am definitely adding shelves like this! What fantastic storage!

We're hopefully looking at some more houses this week or next. Say a prayer for us!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

This tutorial was my first ever guest post (on Sugar Bee Crafts!) just after I started blogging. I never got a chance to post it here, so I thought it deserved to be shared again. Fall is my all time favorite season to decorate for. It may even out rank Christmas (I know!). I'm so excited to pull this little guy out again this year!

This project started out at Goodwill (don't the best ones always start at Goodwill?). I found this "awesome" sweater for $5, and just knew it had secret pumpkin aspirations.

I started by cutting the sleeves off, and making rectangles out of those top 3 orange stripes.

Note: When you're cutting up a striped sweater, make sure you either do it one side at a time, or make sure the stripes are lined up. Of course I remembered to do that...psh! Who would forget to do that!

Take one of your rectangles, fold it in half and pin it like so:

(I need more blog friendly pins...)

Sew a 1/4 inch seam down this edge. Then fold each half in half and do the same thing again. You'll end up with something like this:

Repeat this whole process with the other rectangle, and then sew the two rectangles together, leaving you with something like this:

Grab a needle and thread and gather up one end of your pumpkin. It's difficult to get it closed up all the way, so I cut a rough circle out of brown felt and (very!) roughly whip stitched it on to cover up the edges.

At this point, it also makes a great hat!

(I love this smile!!)

Loosely gather up the other side. Fill your pumpkin with fiber-fill, our your stuffing of choice, and cinch it up. Leave your opening large enough that you could shove some more stuffing in there if you want once it's closed.

Now your pumpkin needs a top. I grabbed a stick from outside, cut pumpkin-toppy (??) shape out of some green felt, and stuck the stick through the middle. I put a bit of hot glue around the bottom of the hole, just to keep everything secure.

This piece then got hot glued to the top of my pumpkin. Then I added some copper wire that was just sitting around. I twisted it around the stick a few times, and then wrapped the ends around a pencil to make some super cute little curly-cues.

Isn't it cute? I am thrilled with the way this pumpkin turned out. I plan on turning the bottom part of my sweater into a pumpkin as well, and maybe the turtleneck as well! I'll have a cute little pumpkin family! OK...maybe you're not as excited about that as I am...Whatev.

Sorry for the lame-o pics! I craft in a basement, and took pictures at night. Bad blogger, bad!

Monday, September 10, 2012

I had a lot of fun putting together today's Dream House installation. There are just so many fun kids rooms out there!

I'm in love with this girls room from Just a Girl. The colors are perfect, and I love the texture from the zebra print rug. It adds some fun, but not holy-cow-in-your-face like black and white zebra print can be.

I love the "built in" look of this bed nook in a dormer room I found at Houzz. I can just imagine being a little girl hiding out in there with my favorite books!

Speaking of little hiding spaces, how great is this playhouse bed from Ana White?! P.S. If you're in looking for some great DIY furniture plans, Ana NEEDS to be your first stop. She has some amazing plans (think Pottery Barn, Ballard, etc...).

I'm also crazy about these bunk beds from Decor Pad. Think about it. The reason you usually opt for bunk beds is to save on space, but they end up being so huge and bulky! These don't take up a ton of visual space, which is great!

These last too aren't complete rooms, but they are kids spaces. I think it's important for kids to have their own space in the house outside of their room, even if it's small. Sometimes separate play tooms aren't an option, and these two spaces bring some definition to other rooms in the house, without completely taking over the room.

This reading nook from Naptime Decorator, in what looks to be a living room, is adorable! The whole family can be in the same room at the same time, and still feel like they aren't invading each other's space!

And this Creativity Center from Modern Parents, Messy Kids fits right in the corner of their kitchen. How great would that be at dinner time?! Oh, and it's all from IKEA, so you know I'm in love. We already have that table and chairs, so I see one of these in Abbey's future!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

It's a crazy work week over here, so I'm a little distracted from blogging. No worries, fun stuff is on the way! I just wanted to pop in and let you know about some Pinterest boards that I have been invited to contribute to!

Amy from Sugar and Spice and Creative Kid Snacks (yes, she has 2 blogs, she's a Super Mom!) and I are working together to load up two great boards for all of you toddler mama's out there! One is for crafts and all sorts of fun artsy stuff, and the other will be full of tips and tricks to make your days easier! The boards are still pretty small, but have no fear, they will be filling up fast! Pop on over and follow them, please?